Fire-safe landscaping can help save your home from wildfires

Presented by San Diego Botanic Garden

Summer is in full-swing in San Diego. And as the weather heats up, so does the risk of wildfires.

Wildfires are a dangerous part of our natural cycle in Southern California. Most native plants go dry and dormant during the summer drought. Small wildfires can quickly grow into blazing infernos with such abundant tinder. However, there are ways to minimize fire damage to your home, if one should occur, through good landscape design, plant selection and garden maintenance.

When designing your landscape, creating ‘buffer zones’ around your home and any other buildings can help defend your home during a wildfire. Buffer zones to consider implementing include:

• Safety or Garden Zone – this is the area within 30-50 feet of your home or building. Plants in this zone should be low-growing, fire-resistant and use relatively little water. In high-risk areas, plant sparingly next to your home and buildings and use gravel or stone mulch instead. Keep the Garden Zone well irrigated.

• Greenbelt Buffer Zone – this is the area that extends 30-100 feet beyond the Garden Zone. Use low-growing, fire-resistant plants in this zone along with a few widely spaced trees or large shrubs. Your irrigation system should extend into this area.

• Transition Zone – this is where your garden meets a natural area. Remove thin, highly-flammable plants from this zone, like native chamise or greaseweed, shrubby acacia, and taller eucalyptus. To avoid erosion, do not dig up the roots. Cut the plants to the ground and spray an herbicide if necessary.

Although any plant will burn in an extremely hot wildfire, choosing which plants to put into your landscape can minimize the risk of fire spreading to your home or other valuable buildings on your property. When selecting plants for fire safety in your landscape, chose plants that meet the following criteria:

• Small Size – plants that are lower to the ground, like groundcovers, annuals, perennials and low shrubs provide less fuel for fires. Choose popular plants to put in your fire safe landscape such as agapanthus, daylilies, Mexican bush sage, Indian hawthorn, star jasmine, pyracantha, pittosporum, oleander, euryops or lavender.

• High-Water Retention – succulents retain high amounts of water and are less likely to ignite than other plants during a wildfire. Try jade, aloe, agave, cacti, and ice plants in your fire safe garden.

• NO Oils or Resins – plants containing oils or resins should be avoided in a fire safe garden. These plants can ignite quickly during a wildfire. Plants to avoid include eucalyptus, pines, acacia and junipers.

• Low Water Needs – California native plants are excellent choices for fire safe gardens. Not only do they need less water than non-natives, these plants are also highly fire-resistant: toyon, hollyleaf cherry, lemonade berry, laurel sumac and coyote brush.

Garden maintenance is the final step you can take as a homeowner to reduce the risk of wildfires spreading quickly across your property. Keep the following tips in mind to keep your fire safety landscape working for you and your loved ones:

• Cleanup and Cut Back – remove all dry grass and dead plants and brush, dead branches and fallen leaves from natural areas at the edge of your landscape. Remember, canyons and hilly terrain requires more brush clearing than level ground.

• Pruning Slows Fires – thin out your groundcovers, shrubs and trees before fire season to reduce potential fuel for wildfires. Trim back shrubs located underneath trees to keep fires from spreading. Remove lower branches of trees 6-10 feet from the ground.

• Watering and Mulch – well-watered plants resist burning and are consumed more slowly during a wildfire. Having a proper irrigation system that goes well beyond the 30-foot radius around your house can help to save your home during a wildfire. Consider extending your irrigation system up to 100 feet away from your home, or even further if you live near a hillside. Remember, gravel, stone and pebble mulches provide good fire protection for your home.